Error: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

Support & Help Requests
1

I am attempting to use dconf from the command line to update mate terminal profile entries.

dconf read /org/mate/terminal/profiles/profile6/visible-name produces “kepler” which is the visible-name attribute of profile6. All good. However, if I attempt a write, such as

dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/profile6/visible-name “‘kerpl’”

I get the following:

error: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

What causes this, and how can I resolve it?

2

Are you doing this in remote session via ssh, by any chance?

If yes, dbus is most likely not running in the remote ssh session. You can start it yourself by adding “dbus-launch” in front of the command:

dbus-launch dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/profile6/visible-name "'kerpl'"

Edited to add: If you are doing this in a remote ssh session and you need to change settings for another user, just add “sudo -u otheruser” before the dbus-launch.

1 Like
3

That did it. Thanks for the tip.